Airship is the right term....R101 one of two that where there.....crashed with many fatalities......a mass grave/memorial nearby in the village of Cardington.
I was there in 1952/53.....my father was the Station Warrant Officer (SWO) at the time and I spent some time in those hangers.....they used to practice parachute drops from up inside the roof......there was a much smaller airship in one of the hangers in those days called....AS Bournemouth.
This is the RAF camp I reported to when I started my National Service (1960) to be kitted out.
My father had a friend a Chief Technician a warrant officer who spent 22 years at RAF Cardington....because as a balloon technician it was the only posting available to him.......years later when I ended up there doing national service he popped his head around the billet door and called for me by name to see how I was getting on....I got suspicious looks from the others after that.....during the months of basic training and trade training I never let on to any of the corporals' that my father was a SWO.
